Members of the Senate and House separately debated Wednesday whether they should ban assault weapons amid yet another rash of mass shootings. 

Among the witnesses who testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee was Mayor Nancy Rotering of Highland Park, Illinois, the site of the Independence Day parade massacre that left seven people dead.

“Highland Park had the uniquely American experience of a Fourth of July parade turn into what has now become a uniquely American experience of a mass shooting,” Rotering told the panel. “How do we call this freedom? 

“Other advanced nations live free of fear of gun violence, and we know that mental health issues exist everywhere in our world,” she continued. “ … What's different about the U.S.? The U.S. has civilian access to assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.”

AR-15-style rifles were used in Highland Park as well as in the Buffalo, New York, shooting that killed 10 people and the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school massacre that left 21 people, including 19 children, dead. 

In his opening statements, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the committee’s chairman, said Americans “can no longer go to the grocery store, a movie theater, Fourth of July parade or send your kids to school without fear of falling victim to another senseless mass shooting.”

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who doesn’t sit on the committee but spoke as a witness, called on lawmakers to ban semiautomatic weapons and large-capacity magazines as she discussed the story of 2-year-old Aiden McCarthy, whose mother and father were killed in the Highland Park shooting. A woman found Aiden underneath his father’s body.

“As a senator representing Aiden, I refuse to let my colleagues ignore how a weapon of war forever changed this little boy's life and the lives of so many others,” she said. “And as a mom raising two little girls who are attending school, I refuse to do nothing in the face of a deadly epidemic of gun.”

Republicans on the panel, however, argued the biggest problem is not the weapons, but the people firing them. 

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the committee’s top Republican, said legislation needed to be passed aimed at identifying potential mass shooters before they act.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who helped negotiate a bipartisan gun bill passed by Congress last month, said he was motivated to save lives but would not “erode the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.” 

“So I wonder about the focus on the firearm, as an inanimate object,” he said. “An inanimate object won't cause harm to anyone. What does matter is the person possessing that firearm.”

Durbin quipped later in the hearing: “I wonder how that logic applies to grenade launchers. We don't allow those to be legally sold to Americans. They are just inanimate objects.”

In arguing against further gun reform, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, cited the story of Elisjsha Dicken, the 22-year-old good Samaritan who fatally shot an active shooter Sunday at a mall in Greenwood, Indiana, although Dicken used a 9-millimeter handgun and Democrats’ focus Wednesday was on semiautomatic weapons and large-capacity magazines.

Although the mall shooter killed three people, authorities have credited Dicken for preventing further bloodshed.

“It's not complicated why when you disarm law-abiding citizens, the result is the criminals don't follow the laws,” Cruz said. “They have the guns, and the law-abiding citizens are unable to defend themselves.”

Durbin cited a New York Times analysis last month that found in 433 active shooting attacks since 2000, just 22 ended with armed bystanders shooting the attackers — 10 of those involved security guards or off-duty police officers.

Rotering said “a good guy with a gun would have had no impact on the shooter” at the Highland Park parade. There, the alleged 21-year-old gunman fired from a rooftop as paradegoers scrambled for cover not knowing where the bullets were coming from.

“And we had good guys with guns on site who are trained, who got there within seconds, and it was just too hard to see where he was,” the Highland Park mayor added.

Meanwhile, across the Capitol, the House Judiciary Committee met to mark up legislation that would ban certain semiautomatic weapons. 

The legislation, sponsored by Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., and co-sponsored by 211 other House members, would make it illegal for anyone to “import, sell, manufacture, or transfer” semiautomatic rifles that have military features and can accept a detachable magazine or have a fixed magazine that holds 10 or more rounds of ammunition. 

The proposal also seeks to ban most semiautomatic pistols and shotguns, “bump stocks” that allow semiautomatic rifles to fire faster, and high-capacity feed devices such as magazines, strips and drums that accept more than 10 rounds.

“Today I'm imploring my colleagues to take action to get these weapons of war, weapons designed for the maximum destruction of human life, off our streets,” Cicilline said. “Let me be clear: We all respect the Second Amendment, but it's not without limits. Imagine how much we could get accomplished if we clung to the desire to protect our children and communities as tightly as some of my colleagues cling to their rifles.”

But Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said the provisions in the bill would run afoul of the Constitution.

“The right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,” he said, paraphrasing the Second Amendment. “Plain and simple. It doesn't say ‘the right to keep and bear muskets shall not be infringed.’ It doesn't say ‘shall not be infringed unless Democrats say this weapon looks so scary.’”

Cicilline’s bill would not ban the sale, transfer or possession of assault weapons or large-capacity ammunition feeding devices legally owned on the date the law would take effect. It also would not restrict antique guns, manually operated firearms, or hunting or sporting weapons.

Even if the legislation clears the House, it is unlikely to pass in the Senate due to broad opposition among Republicans.